Lurgan House Fire Kills Woman (86)

Thick smoke hampered a desperate attempt to save an elderly woman - believed to have been aged in her eighties – from a house fire in Lurgan.

The house, at Downshire Avenue in the Taghnevan area, was filled with thick smoke when the emergency crews arrived after the alarm was raised shortly after 8pm on Thursday.

Firefighters said that when they arrived, her home was smoke-logged and despite their best efforts, the occupant died.

Firefighters who were called to the blaze searched the house, where they discovered her body in the living room.

The exact circumstances surrounding the fire were not clear, but local Assemblyman John O'Dowd said people in the area had been left deeply upset by the death.

"This lady would have been well known in the Taghnevan area. There is shock and sadness at the circumstances in which she has died," he said.

Paddy McMenamin, of the Taghnevan Community Development Association, said the incident had left local people shocked and saddened.

Police and fire crews remained at the scene in an effort to further establish how the blaze began.

The said the body of an 86-year-old woman has been recovered. Her name has not yet been released.

(BMcC)